Mostly known as Catherine Edwards

Main menu

Boy, this is a weird film. I usually quite like narratives where the mysterious stranger disrupts the natural order of things (Six Degrees of Separation being a case in point), but whereas the latter made some interesting points about the use of language as an unreliable social unifier, I’m really not sure whether there’s a coherent … Continue reading →

I still haven’t seen Gravity at the cinema, and while this mid-career offering from Sandra Bullock isn’t exactly the next best thing, it certainly serves as a reminder how effortlessly she can carry a film. It was also available on Netflix when 28 Days Later was nowhere to be found. I’ll put that one on the list … Continue reading →

Today, it was a choice between a film about weddings and bridesmaids, and a character study of a sociopathic loner assassin. No contest. Although they really should try combining the two genres. A succession of blushing brides gunned down every time they go to a dress fitting? I’d be up for that. Call it “Blood … Continue reading →

You know that feeling when you get to the summer solstice and wonder where the hell the year went? Yeah, that. Welcome back to THE LONGEST MONTH IN FILM HISTORY. There are no films with 26 in the title. Nil, nada, nichts. Well, there wasn’t when I started the challenge. There’s now a film called … Continue reading →

There weren’t too many options for Number 25, but this seemed like a decent punt. Directed by Spike Lee and starring Ed Norton, the film charts 24 hours in the life of a post-9/11 New York drug dealer, who is enjoying his last day of freedom before being sent down for seven years. Glossing over … Continue reading →

Yeah, anyway, so Day 24… It was a toss-up today between this and 24 Hour Party People. Twenty Four Seven shaded it (just), mainly because it got 5 stars in Empire. I’m shallow like that. It also had the added bonus of a rare starring role for Bob Hoskins, who recently retired from acting due to the onset of … Continue reading →

If I’d known that the challenge would extend well into February, I would have held off until the recent documentary Room 237 was released on DVD. Now that really does appeal to the geek in me – exploring hidden meanings and conspiracy theories in The Shining. But it’ll have to wait for another time. Besides, I would never have come across … Continue reading →

Released at the same time as M*A*S*H in 1970, Catch-22 suffered in comparison with Robert Altman’s radical war satire, which heralded a new and uncompromising method of film-making. According to Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (1998), even the director, Mike Nichols admitted as such: “We were waylaid by M*A*S*H, which was much fresher and more alive, improvisational, … Continue reading →

At the beginning of January, Empire Magazine re-published their 500 greatest-movies-of-all-time list and challenged the readership to watch them all in one year. That is categorically (going by my record here) not going to happen. But it’s worth mentioning that 21 Grams is the third film this month to fall under that grouping. The first two being … Continue reading →

I tried very hard to avoid watching 2012 as today’s option. Disaster movies have never been my cup of tea since being traumatised by seeing burning bodies falling out of a lift in The Towering Inferno. Plus the fact that it looks a bit crap, and I’d rather not waste my allocation on films that I know … Continue reading →